Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project

Panama poison dart frog (Colostethus panamensis)

Cute Frog of the Week: May 14, 2012

The Panama poison dart frog, also called the common rocket frog, lives in Columbia and Panama. They prefer to live in humid forested environments along rocky streams in lowland areas and are members of a poisonous family of amphibians.

Like the green poison dart frog, these guys monitor their eggs after they lay them on piles of leaves, and females carry the newly hatched tadpoles on their backs for up to nine days where they continue to grow, before eventually being released into a fast-flowing stream to complete their development. This tends to be a behavioral trend among poison dart frogs, though depending on the species, either the male or female will care for the young and move them. In addition, different species of poison dart frogs will carry their young to different kinds of water sources, whether it is a pool, lake, stream, etc.

These frogs are diurnal, meaning that they are most active during the day. Although not endangered, their numbers are decreasing, most likely due to deforestation, illegal planting, pesticides, logging and human settlement. When its habitat is altered, these frogs do not adapt well, so in order to preserve the Panama poison dart frog population, there have been some protected areas established throughout Central America.

Photo by Brian Gratwicke, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Cricket coqui (Eleutherodactylus gryllus)

Cute Frog of the Week: May 7, 2012

If you visit Puerto Rico and hear a high chirp at dawn, you may be near a cricket coqui (Eleutherodactylus gryllus). These little guys—and that’s no exaggeration, they are typically less than an inch long—spend their days in bromeliads or tucked under mossy rocks. They live in forests in the upper elevations of the island, which means they are at serious risk of being affected by habitat fragmentation. Other threats include deforestation, climate change and invasive predators. However, scientists hope that because the species lives in well-managed protected areas, it will be able to withstand these threats.

Photo by Alejandro Sanchez  via Arkive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Eungella torrent frog (Taudactylus eungellensis)

Cute Frog of the Week: April 30, 2012

About 27 years ago, no one in Australia thought twice about the Eungella torrent frog (Taudactylus eungellensis). Then, suddenly, populations first at low altitudes and then even those higher up began to decline. For more than five years in the late 1980s and early ’90s, no one reported seeing these frogs. Fortunately, since then nine small populations have been discovered, although they are reproducing slowly. The frog is still listed as critically endangered, and the fact that its habitat is small and fragmented means it isn’t out of the woods yet. Scientists don’t know what caused the population to plummet in the first place, but chytrid may have been involved. Now, important habitat is protected and the frog is listed as endangered by the Australian legislature, while scientists are working to learn more about it.

Photo by John Augusteyn via Arkive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Dark-spotted frog (Rana nigromaculata)

Cute Frog of the Week: April 23, 2012

The dark-spotted frog (Rana nigromaculata) sports stylish dark grey spots on its olive skin. Found in Japan, Korea, China, and the Far East of Russia, this near-threatened frog lives in stagnant water in meadows, forests and deserts; it has a particular soft spot for rice paddies. In fact, diversifying crops are one factor causing trouble for these frogs. Other threats include the live animal trade, harvesting for food, and water pollution. Each year, dark-spotted frogs hibernate from between late September and November to between February and May; they reproduce after they wake up from their long, refreshing rest.

Photo by Shouma Sejima via Arkive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans)

Cute Frog of the Week: April 15, 2012

Talk about a frog that can’t seem to make up its mind! The Northern cricket frog looks like a toad and sounds like a bird, though it is really a tree frog that prefers living near lakes.

One of the smallest of North America’s vertebrates, these tiny frogs usually range from 0.75 inches to 1.5 inches in length. Their color patterns vary from browns to grays to greens, often in irregular blotchy patterns, and there is often a darker triangular mark on the back of their heads. They also tend to have bands of darker pigment on their legs, a lighter band that runs from the eye to the base of the foreleg, and sometimes a slightly lighter band of color that is present down the spine. Due to their size and camouflage, it is not easy to spot these guys!

Because of the bumpy, “warty” texture of their skin, these frogs are often mistaken for toads by those who manage to spot them. However, they are not—they do not have parotid glands near the back of their heads, which can secrete toxic substances and are common to toads. In addition, even though they are tree frogs, they do not have enlarged toe pads to help them climb. This may be one of the reasons that these so-called ‘tree frogs’ don’t actually spend much time in the trees.

Northern cricket frogs are diurnal and active throughout much of the year except for when it is so cold that the water freezes. They are most commonly found in the eastern half of the United States, and tend to be heard most during mating season from late April to late July or early August. Their call is a sharp “glick-glick-glick” similar to that of many small birds and described as two glass marbles being struck together. They also migrate each spring and autumn through several different types of habitats, but little is known about this behavior.

Being a small prey species, their main defense strategy is to swim or hop away from danger as fast as possible, and despite their small size, they have been seen to leap more than 6 feet in a single jump. That’s equivalent to an average 6 foot-tall human jumping 288 feet in a single bound! They have also been seen to make a series of smaller jumps in a zigzag to throw off predators before diving underwater.

These frogs prefer to live along the banks of slow moving bodies of water, such as lakes or ponds as opposed to in trees, though they can be found in lower vegetation as well. They hibernate upland, away from icy water when the weather gets very cold. Northern cricket frogs are considered endangered in Minnesota and Wisconsin, threatened in New York, and as a species of special concern in Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia.

Photo by Gonçalo M. Rosa via ARKive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Sachatamia (Sachatamia punctulata)

Cute Frog of the Week: April 9, 2012

Or, at least, do not disturb the sachatamia’s (Sachatamia punctulata) habitat. That’s because this Colombian frog is picky about where it lays its eggs: only in gallery forest on leaves that overhang water. Once they hatch, the tadpoles drop from that perch into the water to finish growing up. This means that habitat loss and fragmentation, particularly due to agriculture, are an important threat to this frog. Currently, none of its habitat is protected. It is also vulnerable to small white flies that lay their eggs within sachatamia eggs.

Photo by Victor Fabio Luna-Mora via Arkive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Fringe-limbed tree frog (Ecnomiohyla fimbrimembra)

Cute Frog of the Week: April 2, 2012

The fringe-limbed tree frog is an extremely rare find, and therefore not much is known about this elusive species. These frogs live high in the canopy and are often overlooked. For this reason, it is difficult to conduct proper population counts, though they are considered endangered.

The prominent feature of these frogs is the dermal fringes between their fingers and toes. Scientists believe that this webbing can act like a parachute or glider wings when the frogs extend their fingers and toes outward, which would allow them to do just that— hop and glide from tree limb to tree limb. However, though this behavior has been observed in other related species, these particular guys have never been seen doing so. The frogs also have sticky disks at the tips of their fingers.

Based on individuals that have been found, this species’ coloration can range from lavender-brown, yellowish-white, brownish-tan, to green.

Native to Costa Rica and Panama, these frogs are nocturnal and from what researchers currently know, prefer living in humid premontane and lower montane forests. Being that these frogs spend most of their lives in the upper canopy, breeding, egg-laying and juvenile development occurs in tree-holes.

The main threats to these frogs are general habitat loss due to deforestation primarily for development and livestock ranching.

Photo by Andreas Hertz via ARKive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Volcan barba tree frog (Isthmohyla picadoi)

Cute Frog of the Week: March 12, 2012

If you’re very lucky visiting the mountain forests of Panama or Costa Rica, you may hear the call of a Volcan barba treefrog (Isthmohyla picadoi), but you almost certainly will not catch sight of it. This frog has reason to be shy—while it is relatively safe in Costa Rica, deforestation for farming and timber is destroying its home. Because of this, the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them near threatened. Scientists are hoping that because these frogs are found in a variety of types of forest, they may have a leg up in coping with habitat degradation.

Photo by Andreas Hertz via ARKive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Misfit leaf frog (Agalychnis saltator)

Cute Frog of the Week: March 5, 2012

Just like you get dressed in the morning, the parachuting red-eyed leaf frog or misfit leaf frog (Agalychnis saltator) changes from its nighttime tan or brown to its daytime bright green. But that isn’t the only trick this little guy has up its sleeve. These frogs have lots of webbing between their fingers and toes, and during breeding season males make large leaps with this webbing splayed wide to act as small parachutes.

These little misfits, who live in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, lay their eggs on the moss that covers tree vines during the rainy season. Unfortunately, this makes the eggs particularly vulnerable to becoming a snack for ants and snakes. The frogs that do make it to adulthood, however, are plentiful enough to make this species not at risk of extinction.

Photo by Joe Milmoe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Common Chinese frog (Hyla chinensis)

Cute Frog of the Week: February 27, 2012

You’ll never catch a Chinese tree frog (Hyla chinensis) singing “Rain, rain, go away.” Found in eastern China and Taiwan, these little guys live in shrubs and rice paddies, often in small groups. They are common during the rainy season, but they can be tricky to spot once the weather gets drier. Chinese tree toads only lay their eggs after a rainy April or May evening. Although they could suffer from habitat loss and degradation, their population is currently stable and they benefit from living in several protected areas.

Photo by Tzu-lun Hung via ARKive.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/